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Sunday, June 11, 2017

Video Mash-Ups with Google Slides

Mash-Ups are a fun and popular way to express creativity whether you are combining different styles of music, or art, or memes, or such. Mash-ups can also be educational when the creator uses the two items to explain or express an idea, or for one of the items to complement or expand on the other.

One fun way to students to try this out is by using Google Slides to mash-up videos. Google Slides makes it easy to insert videos from either YouTube or Google Drive. Slides allows you to adjust your video options so that your videos automatically play when the slideshow runs. The end results is a presentation with two videos that play at the same time.

This could be used in several creative projects such as:

Adding music or popular songs to famous historical speeches, or science videos, or scenes from story.

Or having one video explain a concept, while the other shows examples or demonstrations of that idea.

Or the videos could be used to show contrast, by playing two videos that demonstrate different processes or ideas or time periods or such.

See below for directions on how students can do this activity, along with a free template they can copy and use, as well as an example mash-up to show what a final product might look like.

The Mash-Up Template

First begin by getting a copy of the Google Slides Video Mash-Up template below. Simply click the link to make your own copy which you can edit however you like.

Title slide - When the student can put in the titles of their mash-up videos

Directions - Brief instructions for the student (this slide can be deleted after use)

Videos - Where the student can insert the video videos to be mashed-up

Explanation - Where the student can write about why they put these two videos together

Inserting Videos

You should insert two videos on the "Videos" slide as follows:

Click "Insert" in the top menu bar.

Click "Video" from the drop-down menu.

From the "Insert video" pop-up window you can:

Search for a YouTube video

Paste in the link to a YouTube video

Browse their Google Drive for a video

When you find the video you want, click "Select" to add the video to the slide.

As needed, move and resize the video.

Repeat for the second video.

Video Options

Now that the two videos are inserted, you will want to adjust a few options as follows:

Click on a video to select it.

Now click the "Video options" menu in the top menu bar.

The "Video Options" side panel will open.

Check the box for "Autoplay when presenting" to force the video to play automatically when the slideshow runs.

Optionally, set the "Start at" time and/or "End at" time if you only want a portion of the video to play.

Note: This can be a good way to get the videos to sync up to just the spots you want to play together.

Optionally, check the "Mute audio" box if you want one of the video to be silent.

Repeat for the second video.

Add an Explanation

On the "Explanation" slide, you should write up why you chose the two videos to mash-up. This could include how the two videos relate to each other, or how one video complements and expands on the other videos, or even how the two videos contrast each other.

Publish to the Web

When your slideshow is done, the easiest way to share it with others is to publish it to the web. This will allow the slideshow to open full screen and start automatically. Here's how:

Click "File" in the top menu bar.

Choose "Publish to the web" from the drop-down menu.

This will open the "Publish to the web" window.

Note: Don't check the box for "Start slideshow as soon as the player loads" since you do not want the slides auto-advancing before the videos are done playing.

Mash-ups can be a fun way to be creative and educational at the same time … sort of like playing two videos at once. If you try this out with your students, please consider sharing in the comments below how you used the activity, and maybe even some samples of what your students created.

4 comments:

I had no idea you could do that, what a cool use of tools! I'll definitely have to tell some of my more confident teachers about this. One way to use it might be to have students in a an art class, Makerspace, STEM class, or Science lab shoot time lapse photos or a video of themselves making/building something, and then have a second video be the student/group explaining what they were doing and why. This is what I always want to hear from my own kids :-)

Thank you for the ideas in this post. I had not thought about a mash-up with two videos. I can't wait to share this idea with some of my more "techy" teachers. I can see this working into a really fun activity for Literature classes. Students could choose a literary work to read and then choose music that would "mash-up" with their feelings about the work. Fun!